Nate Florence spends most of his life following waves around the world. He likes his wave big and heavy and barreling, and he’s made a name for himself by surfing the biggest and heaviest he can find. But, as the old saying goes, “there’s no place like home.”
After a few months bouncing around the planet on his eternal search for waves, he headed back to Hawaii for the North Shore winter. For a surfer like Nate, it’s tough to beat what that place has to offer when big north west swells start moving, and on November 24th, North Shore surfers were in for a real treat. A bit of a surprise treat, but a treat nonetheless. The same swell lit up places like Waimea and Pipe, but a few select people headed out to some of the outer reefs, where the waves get absolutely enormous — just like Nate likes them.
“This swell — the trippiest swell — seemed like it was coming in at a certain size,” Nate said. “All the forecasts predicted a certain size. And then we have these buoys that sit off the Islands that can give wind and swell readings. The first buoy starts to hit, and it’s just way bigger. Double the size of what the swell was predicted to be. The buoys continued to hit, and it just got bigger and bigger.”
The initial plan for Nate was to go to Jaws — which certainly turned on — but after seeing the buoys and taking a closer look at the wind, he decided to stay home and hang around at a playground a little closer to his house. It was a bit of a gamble, but as you can see above, it certainly paid off.
